By Jim Newell
Review Staff Writer
The Lake Orion Men’s Cross Country team is off to a good start, showing promise early in the season with two second-place and one third-place finish in their meets.
Coach Stan Ford said the team has performed well, but knows they need to continue to improve in order to win the league and do well in the 38-school county meet, and to qualify for regionals and state.
The Dragons took second place as a team in a four-team meet at Lake Orion High School on Monday. Senior runner Michael Jarvis, who is running his first year of cross country after transferring from football, finished second overall with a time of 16:30.
“It’s definitely to my advantage that it was at home,” Jarvis said. “It’s a really tough course. It’s really hilly…It’s tougher than a lot of courses we run.”
“Michael Jarvis is showing that he is a gutty runner and that bodes well for him and the team,” Ford said.
Ford said the team has three returning varsity runners and four new runners, three of whom have never run cross country.
“There’s a learning curve,” Ford said, adding he’s working on teaching the new runners how succeed in cross country. “It’s ‘How do I pace myself?’ They’re not used to racing this long.”
The Dragons placed second to Clarkston on Sept. 12, and have previously finished second and third in the first two meets. “Those are good performances, but as a team we can see where there is room for improvement,” Ford said.
“Ryan Mulcahy made a nice run today, and he is a sophomore,” Ford said.
“Only three of the top seven are returning from last year’s Varsity: senior Jack Everts, junior Drew Giem and sophomore Ryan Mulcahy. All are coming off a successful track season and have had a good summer of preparation,” Ford said.
“But we are excited because of the ‘new’ faces. Michael Jarvis has demonstrated his abilities on the track team, having run a 4:24 mile. And Juniors Chase McBride, (4:38), and Matt Mulligan, (4:41), join us, having played soccer in the past. They too have shown a lot of promise coming off of very successful track performances,” Ford said.
Early practices have shown some depth with Senior Matt Junkin, Junior Matt McAuliffe, Sophomore Nick Wolf, along with Freshman Andrew Nolan filling in the top 10 spots.
Ford said the top six or seven runners are competitive.
“That depth is a strength,” Ford said. “What I like about the team is there is a nice mixture of all grade levels. They’re all contributing.”
On September 2 The Dragons took home the 2nd Place Trophy at the O.U. Grizzly Invitational.
Leading the way were Jarvis and Jack Everts, finishing third and fourth, respectively. Junior Drew Giem was 19th, followed closely by Chase McBride, 21st, and Matt Mulligan, 22nd, Ford said.
Birmingham Brother Rice won the meet with 54 points, while Lake Orion finished second with 69 points. Romeo rounded out the top three with 103 points in the 14-team competition.
“I want to have them run to the best of their ability for the age that they’re at,” Ford said. “I just want them to have some fun doing it because if they’re having fun they’ll keep doing it.”